Weather Journal: A Dusting of Snow As Arctic Blast Continues

People’s frozen breath can be seen in the early morning as they walk on the Upper East Side of Manhattan Thursday.

Temperatures will remain below freezing throughout the weekend — the longest stretch of ice-inducing weather for Greater New York in almost six years.

Icicles will abound this weekend as the region struggles through the worst cold weather outbreak in quite some time. Those still without heat from superstorm Sandy stand to suffer the most. As a parting gift, Mother Nature may provide a dusting of snow on Friday night — which could be the first one-inch-plus snowfall in the city since the post-superstorm Sandy nor’easter in early November. Taking into account the latest forecasts, Friday’s snow should be enough to turn the ground white, but not much more.

With the storm track forecasted to be well out to sea, the National Weather Service has basically considered Friday night’s storm a non-event. Snow (what little there will be) will fall after the evening rush hour and will accumulate a maximum of two inches across much of the region. Some spots, like extreme southern New Jersey (south of Atlantic City), could receive a bit more than that, but not much.

By the time Monday arrives, temperatures around the tri-state will still be rebounding from this week’s extreme Arctic blast. Sunday will mark the sixth consecutive day where temperatures have failed to reach the freezing mark in New York City. The last six-day stretch with a high temperature of 32 F or less in Central Park was Feb. 4-9, 2007 — a testament to the recent warmer-than-average winters across the tri-state.

On Thursday, extra winds shaved off a few degrees from Wednesday’s already frigid weather. In White Plains, N.Y., just north of the city, wind chills dipped as low as -9 F with temperatures in the single digits on Thursday morning. Further upstate, actual temperatures briefly fell as low as -31 F in Saranac Lake, N.Y., in the Adirondacks — a new low mark for the winter. The U.S. Coast Guard has been monitoring a buildup of Hudson River ice in recent days north of the Tappan ZeeBbridge, but it doesn’t expect any barge restrictions before melting resumes with warmer temperatures next week.

Superstorm Sandy Town Hall Meeting
At the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Austin, Texas, earlier this month, I participated in a special Town Hall discussion among the nation’s meteorologists to discuss takeaways from superstorm Sandy’s impact in Greater New York. Those discussions are now freely available online (if you can manage to stand the sound of my voice for 15 minutes). Here’s the direct link to my talk, which discusses my experiences covering the storm for the Journal in the days leading up to and directly after landfall.

The National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, the Weather Channel and other renowned meteorologists took part in the discussion — which was among the first public chances for members of our science to address this historic storm.

Your Weather Journal weekend forecast roundup:

WSJ Headquarters in Manhattan:

High: Friday: 23, Saturday: 27, Sunday: 27

Low: Friday: 18, Saturday: 19, Sunday: 24

Weather: Gradual warm-up begins

Friday/Saturday/Sunday Highs for Greater New York:

Brooklyn: 24/28/29

Queens: 24/28/30

Bronx: 24/28/28

Staten Island: 25/28/28

Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: 21/25/27

Trenton, N.J.: 24/29/34

Islip, Long Island: 25/26/28

New Haven, Conn.: 23/25/26

Meteorologist Eric Holthaus contributes daily weather reports and analysis on Metropolis. For the latest on conditions in New York and elsewhere, follow his updates (@EricHolthaus) on Twitter.